2023 is the 50th Anniversary of the Skylab Missions in Earth Orbit, which followed the Apollo lunar landing missions and preceded the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight.
Skylab was part of the Apollo Applications Program, which would use proven Apollo Spacecraft technology and systems to do valuable scientific work in low Earth orbit. It would become our first space Station, supporting three crews of three astronauts.
The first manned mission lasted 28 days. The second lasted 56 days, and the final manned mission lasted 84 days.
The 3D-printed model was obtained under downloaded license from designer "Marco3D" through the Cults 3D website. The full download contained STL files for three "modes" of Skylab - the launch configuration. the "normal" flight configuration and the "real" flight configuration, which reduces the lab to a single large solar array wing and places the appropriate "sunshades" over the manned section of the workshop.
Solar Wing #2 and the micrometeorite/heat shield was ripped away from the lab during ascent, some 1 minute into flight.
The workshop model also provides a near-fully detailed interior, showing all work levels and major compartments.
All of the parts were printed out using my Creality Halot One SLA Printer.
Here are some of the makor elements after 3D printing. The lower interior workshop floor level is on the left, then the sunshade complex, the end-cap radiator and lower tank section, the central workshop body, the removable body section (which reveals the interior), and the lower and upper main stage rings.
This is a close-up of the upper interior workshop floor level. You can see the Galley, the three "staterooms" where the crew's bunks were located and the Waste Management Section.
Here's a view of the two interior floor levels after final assembly and painting.
I used copper foil on all exposed exterior surfaces of the workshop body, to replicate the actual metal surface.
A Sun-angle view of the Skylab in real flight configuration. Both Gold and Bronze foils were used on the layers of "sunshades." The display stand was also part of the Marco3D STL file set.
A side view, showing the docked Apollo CSM, the Apollo Telescope Mount, its supporting truss structure and the Multiple Docking Adapter.
The Skylab Model resides on the upper level of the Apollo-Saturn V display cabinet in our "Lovely Apollo Room." Although the Saturn V is in 1/96 scale and the Skylab is 1/100, they are close enough in scale to show approximate size comparisons.
The Skylab Workshop was created by converting a McDonnell-Douglas S-IVB third-stage of a Saturn V, into a pressurized habitable workshop.
